1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print operation processing device for a serial printer such as an ink-jet printer and the like to execute a cycle of operation for supplying, printing and ejecting a discrete paper or to repeat the above-mentioned operation for continuous printing on discrete papers where the succeeding paper is overlapped at a desired position of the current paper in accordance with a printing area of the current paper so as to execute a successive printing effectively for raising a throughput of the printing, by saving ejecting time for blank areas of the current paper.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
The print operation processing device mentioned above has a function to execute successive printing on a plurality of discrete papers. Typically, the print operation for the discrete paper consists of paper supply, printing and paper ejecting procedures etc. When successive printing on a plurality of discrete papers is required, the requirements are fulfilled by the conventional systems when the above-mentioned cycle of a print operation on the discrete paper is repeated.
The above-mentioned print operation processing device attains the print operation on the discrete paper or a plurality of the discrete papers by a combination of paper supply, printing and paper ejection procedures on one discrete paper, but these procedures are executed on the discrete paper basis independently even when the successive printing is required. Some printers execute paper ejection and supply procedures simultaneously.
In the above-mentioned conventional print operation processing devices, the print operation for each paper is completely independent. Though some printers attain ejecting the current paper and supplying the succeeding paper simultaneously, operations are executed routinely regardless of the area size to be printed and without overlapping papers. Consequently, total throughputs of the print operations are insufficient.
When a large amount of data with different contents for each paper are printed by employing the above-mentioned means, for example, the throughput of the printing is improved to a certain extent compared with printing by the ordinary system. Since succeeding paper is supplied partly parallel to ejecting the current paper only after current paper is ejected out of the printing margin in the sub scanning direction, the throughput of the printing is improved to some extent compared with the ordinary printing procedure where paper supply and ejection are executed independently. However the effect is limited due to that paper ejection and supply procedures are automatically executed regardless of data amount to be printed on the current paper.
Typically, when data with different contents for each paper are printed continuously on discrete papers, a series of print operations are executed according to the following sequence as shown in FIG. 2, which is explained later. The printing sequence comprises (1) paper supply, (2) repeat operations of printing in the main scanning direction and paper feed in the sub scanning direction, (3) paper ejection when no data to be printed remain for the current paper or when the current paper passes the lower margin.
As mentioned above, a plurality of the same printings on discrete papers are executed in the same way as described above. In these printings, a time for printing is determined by a time for printing in the main scanning direction, a time for paper feeding in the sub direction and a time for paper ejection/supply. This affects and determines the maximum throughput of the print operation processing device.